7 ms·
Ambulances will trigger green signal
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- EugeneOZ 11y agoGreat idea! I think it worth to be implemented everywhere.
- monk_e_boy 11y agoI wonder how secure it is and what the black market is like for a device that changes the lights for you....
- JshWright 11y agoSimilar systems are in widespread use around the world.
- EugeneOZ 11y agoCool, didn't know it. Not in wild Russia:)
- bitJericho 11y agoA similar system is already in effect (for years) in my area of the US.
- digital-rubber 11y agoSame in The Netherlands, and also works for regular transit busses so they can maintain their planned schedule.
- smoyer 11y agoI live on the outskirts of a relatively small city in the US and we've had a system like this for at least 15 years. It also works for other types of emergency vehicles (e.g. it allows firetrucks to get to fires faster too).
- monk_e_boy 11y agohas it been hacked?
- magoon 11y agoThis sounds like an overly-expensive implementation of the simple strobe-based signals used in the U.S. at nearly every intersection I've been through.
- Menge 11y agoThe old ones work by turning all lights red which is great for a low density and organized traffic system and make it non-beneficial to hack them unless you are immune to tickets. If there is traffic crowding and narrow lanes or lane sharing then the ambulance needs the drivers in front of it to also realize they have right of way and the obligation to continue moving out of the way. This is a common problem in older US/European cities where the streets have not kept up with capacity and are not as wide as would be required by current rules.
- 616c 11y agoWhat's funny in certain countries (right now for me the GCC) is that people believe if you flash with your brights at the right speed and frequency it will automatically set them to green, or shorten the interval on the opposing traffic direction so it goes green for you sooner. Do other people believe this? I have watched people try for over 60 seconds or more until giving up, and I find this hilarious even today.
- phpnode 11y agoIn the UK a lot of taxi drivers seem to believe this, the superstition is reinforced whenever they happen to flash when the lights were about to change anyway. It's also a comfort thing, similar to a placebo button[0] - people want to believe that they have some control over the mundane parts of their lives. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo_button http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo_button
- DanBC 11y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9617105 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9617105
- monk_e_boy 11y agoThis works for temporary traffic lights here in the UK (I've just googled and some people seem to think they are motion sensors, but from my experience they aren't) If it's dark and quiet, I think both sides go to red, then when a light is detected, that side goes green. Quite common knowledge in the UK
- grkvlt 11y agoNo, sorry - they are motion sensors. I can trigger them on my bike, with no lights involved. You're suffering from confirmation bias, and not taking into consideration the fact that the lights change when they detect your vehicle, this is usually going to be coincident with you flashing your headlights, but the former is the cause, not the latter. It's a common misunderstanding, though.
- lojack 11y ago
- Aoyagi 11y agoEh? Trams and buses in Czech Republic have been using this for years.
- NLips 11y agoWhy doesn't the signal set all lights to red, leaving the junction clear for the ambulance to go through? The best reason I can think of is if the idea is to improve traffic flow in general in favour of the ambulance (e.g. allow cars in front of the ambulance to move on through the lights), but that quicklt becomes a much more complex problem.
- coldpie 11y agoOne answer would be green lights indicate that it's red in the crossing direction, since the ambulance driver can't see those lights.
- JshWright 11y agoBecause I can proceed directly through a green light. The other directions will never be green at the same time. If the light is red, I know nothing about the other directions, and have to stop and 'clear' the intersection before proceeding through.
- Hoff 11y agoFormer EMS provider... The laws on whether ambulances must stop at red lights and stop signs vary by locality. It's almost always legally your mess if you don't stop at a traffic control device and are then involved in a collision — most laws and various insurance or service policy requirements tend to require "due care" or "prudent" or other such wording, and collisions are usually considered an adverse indication. I've always wanted the traffic signal in front of me to be green on approach. This reduces the numbers of stopped cars in my path. Some of the drivers of the stopped cars at intersections will attempt or will perform odd or normally-unexpected maneuvers, sometimes leading to collisions. But mostly the herd in front of me scatters short distances, and generally resulting in intersection gridlock. It's common practice in some areas to avoid using the siren in certain situations, such as when passing to the right of the bulk of (stopped) traffic waiting on a red, using the breakdown or turn lane at an intersection, for instance. Some folks will hear the siren and immediately block that lane, or they might turn into and collide with me. The local traffic preemption systems all include a flashing indicator — a rotating red beacon on a cross-arm or a pole, for instance — indicating that the preemption request has been accepted and is occurring. This tells me that the other lights are all red. Or it tells me that I'm approaching a non-preempted light, and that the green in front of me might go red. If the traffic lights are red and there's no preemption and no open and no bypass lane, then some of the folks at the front of the herd will inevitably not break that red, meaning local traffic gridlock, meaning that the ambulance waits (with the siren off) for the light to change.
- madeofpalk 11y agoThe traffic lights in Sydney are managed in a way to give priority to late-running public transport. I was impressed to find out the traffic light system in Sydney, Australia (Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Coordinated_Adaptive_Traffic_System http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Coordinated_Adaptive_Tra...) has been exported around the world to cities such as Singapore, Dublin and Hong Kong. Interestingly enough,
- namplaa 11y agoAs far as I know in the Netherlands you get aside or stop when you see the strobe and hear the siren, to let an emergency vehicle pass, it is also allowed to run a red light.